The Year of Climate Backsliding, Part Two: The Media

I'm writing this on the heels of the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, an annual gathering of journalists that actually manages to celebrate journalism and its value to society, even in these troubled times. It was, as usual, a magical time filled with late-night chats with old friends, coffees with editors I've never met in person, and panels filled with fascinating and challenging discussions.

And yet...the conference was notably lacking in climate content. It was so noticeable, in fact, that an entire side event focused on this absence. The first time I attended the conference, two years ago, it was because there were so many climate panels that people kept asking me to join theirs. It's of course quite common for journalism events, like any other sort of industry event, to follow the trends (hello, I also make podcasts, I know from the fickleness of media), so no surprise to see loads of panels on tech and AI and the journalism funding crash and reporting from authoritarian countries, but out of around 150 panels and talks, only one--one!--had a climate focus and it was shorter than the average panel. It wasn't highlighted in the panel guide, either.

Now, you could say well people should be talking about climate on all of the panels. And many did! On the tech panel I joined, for example, I spoke about the unholy alliance of Big Tech and Big Oil.

But equally, it's important to think about context. The climate crisis has never made itself more present, from extreme weather events every month to oil-fueled wars and the clear devastation wrought by the global economy's dependence on fossil fuels. The authoritarianism we're all talking about? That's a climate story, especially given the fact that the U.S. president has made it all but illegal to say the word climate in his presence. So while yes there are a lot of big stories competing for attention at the moment, now seems like as important a time for journalists to be talking about how to cover climate than any.

Instead, climate journalism has been in the crosshairs of the media meltdown. In just the last six months, we've seen:

• The Washington Post gut its climate team;
• Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University shut down its Oxford Climate Journalism Network online program--which started in 2022 with the aim of training journalists to do climate reporting;
• The Media and Climate Observatory at University of Colorado, Boulder measured a 14% decline in climate coverage from 2024 to 2025
• Media Matters reports that in the U.S., ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News reduced the airtime devoted to climate change by 35%. 
• and, as I learned via casual conversations at IJF, not on a panel: much more quietly than the Washington Post, Reuters cut its climate team as well.

Meanwhile, funders of climate journalism are largely folding, too, opting to back comms projects instead or simply stay away from anything as "controversial" as climate and journalism altogether. The cowardice is breathtaking.

So, on this Earth Day, I'm thinking about one of the great catalysts of that day, the environmental movement, and environmental policy in general--Rachel Carson. And how it wasn't a strategic campaign or a clever comms approach or a razor-sharp lobbyist who inspired the passage of bedrock environmental regulation and pushed a Republican president to start the Environmental Protection Agency, it was a science writer who managed to convey the problem to the public in such a way that they demanded action.

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This Week's Climate Must-Reads

• "US tech firms successfully lobbied EU to keep datacentre emissions secret," by Ajit Niranjan, Nico Schmidt and Ella Joyner for The Guardian. Speaking of that unholy alliance between Big Tech and Big Oil, documents obtained by Investigate Europe show that Microsoft lobbied for a shifty "confidentiality clause" around emissions that EU commissioners adopted almost word-for-word.
• "A Love Letter to Human Rights Defenders," by Nina Lakhani for Drilled. As she winds down her time as Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor gives us an exit interview. Things are worse now than when she started and yet, this is an inspiring read!
• "'Economic Civil War': States Push Laws to Shield Oil and Gas Companies From Accountability," by Abrahm Lustgarten for ProPublica - To celebrate Earth Day, today Republican lawmakers put forth the “Stop Climate Shakedowns” Act of 2026 “to protect American energy from leftist legal crusades punishing lawful activity” and “defend American energy dominance.” It's the latest in a years-long push to give oil companies legal immunity, a massive backlash to the rise of climate litigation, as Lustgarten chronicles in this piece.
• "Invisible plumes and ‘terrible pollution’: the reality of the US gas sites rated ‘grade A’," by Marcello Rossi, Nicholas Cunningham and Amy Westervelt for The Guardian. Drilled was part of this investigation, which found that "green gas" certifications are based largely on vibes, though the EU is currently planning to accept them as proof of compliance with the EU Methane Regulation.
• Goldman Prize Winners [announcement] - Okay not a read necessarily, but if you're looking for a reminder that people can still make big changes, spend some time reading about these extraordinary folks today.